"I happened to myself in these very woods." -Joshua Marie Wilkinson, from Selenography

Marathon Man

There was a slow explosion

right behind me

I decided to run

and I left

the slow explosion behind

I met a woman

and had a family

and we got a dog

but then the slow explosion

caught up to me

and swallowed my family whole

I decide to run again

for longer this time

so that maybe the slow

explosion wouldn’t catch up again

so that maybe it wouldn’t know

where to find me

I ended up at the beach

and I bought myself a nice beachside

property and there were palm trees

and I drank daiquiris every day

I lived there for many years

until the slow explosion caught up

and swallowed the property

the drinks and the wait staff whole

I began to feel selfish for running

because in the chase

the explosion had claimed

so many innocent lives

so I faced the slow explosion

and noticed that it wasn’t an explosion at all

it was hundreds of trees

all growing like wild-fire

with autumn leaves that looked

like wild-fire

and they were all hungry for blood

they ate me up

and I became one of them

a slow exploding tree

and I was finally with my family

and the wait staff again

and we are all hungry for blood